


Look Ahead

by Awesomepie3221



Series: Fictober 2019 [1]
Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Fictober, Fictober 2019, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-10 17:50:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20855810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesomepie3221/pseuds/Awesomepie3221
Summary: Richie is pulling Eddie along to some place he's never been.





	Look Ahead

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I've decided to do the Fictober prompts from the Tumblr fictober-event. 
> 
> First prompt is "It will be fun, trust me."

They're trampling around in the woods, foliage springing back up the moment their feet pick back up.  
  
Richie is pulling him along, his hand sweaty in their mutual grip, and he's being dragged, nervous eyes scouring the plants around to make sure none are poison ivy, not that he can identify poison ivy very well.  
  
"Hurry up, Eddie, you're going so _slow_," Richie complains, tugging Eddie a little harder. Eddie feels a bush brush against his leg and he shivers.  
  
"I'm sorry, but maybe if I knew where we were going, I wouldn't be going so slow," Eddie says, pointedly. Richie scoffs, picks up his speed some more. Eddie feels like he's going to be pulled down if he doesn't pick up the pace, and he doesn't want to risk landing in poison ivy or a thorn bush. The thought gets to him enough that he goes to be side by side with Richie.  
  
Richie smiles at him with absolutely no care as to what he could possibly step on. His glasses are halfway down his nose, and they look like they're only a few steps from falling off, and Eddie thinks, maybe, he could push them up for Richie, but Richie has fingers on the middle of them before the thought takes hold.  
  
"It'll be fun, I promise," Richie says, his voice bright. He's looking at Eddie again, and Eddie knows he's going to stumble over a tree branch soon enough, and Eddie won't be able to save him because there'll be a patch of poison ivy right under him and Eddie can't risk getting that himself, and then Richie will be covered in rashes and Eddie won't be able to be near him for who knows how long those things last.  
  
"Pay attention to where you're walking, dumbass," Eddie says, and Richie seems to agree with him, because he looks ahead without a fight.  
  
There's water running off in the distance, and Eddie thinks they may be near the quarry, but he lost track a while ago of where they are. He had falsely assumed he knew every corner of Derry, but Richie is surprising him. They had taken a bunch of turns right after entering the forest straight behind Richie's house. Eddie suspects they walked in a circle for a few minutes so he would lose track of their direction.  
  
"We're almost there," Richie answers the question Eddie was about to ask. Richie has a particularly good skill with that, and it makes Eddie smile, small, more for himself than anyone else.  
  
The sound of water is getting stronger, and the foliage thicker. He's being scratched from branches and bushes at all his exposed skin, and maybe he should have worn long sleeves and blue jeans, but it's so hot that there's no way he would have done that. He wasn't going to risk a much deadlier heat stroke over some scratches.  
  
Still, Ma is going to freak out and smear ointment all over him.  
  
Maybe he should borrow some clothes from Richie before going home and when she asks why  
  
(_"Where are the clothes you left in, Eddie-Bear?"_)  
  
he'll just lie. It seems easier.  
  
It feels like they've been walking to a fake end goal for hours now. Richie had just claimed they were almost there, but it feels like they've been going for another thirty minutes.  
  
A branch smacks Eddie in the face after Richie lets go of it too soon, and a leaf gets in his mouth. It tastes awful, and he sputters, cursing Richie. Richie looks back, almost as if he's going to apologize, but then he laughs in the way Richie does. The way that shows he doesn't care, even though he should, but it's just not important in his own Richie mind.  
  
Then, not looking where he's going, he runs into a tree. Eddie could have stop it, easily, all he would have had to do was yell at Richie to stop looking at him, idiot, but the image of Richie running into that tree had been too funny for him to do anything.  
  
Their hands seperate as Richie rebounds and falls into a heap on the ground. Eddie is laughing, hands on his knees, eyes closed, despite how he wants them to be open because he wants to see how helpless and childish Richie looks.  
  
"Are you not going to help me up, Eds?"  
  
"Hell no," Eddie replies. He can't believe he's still laughing and he can't believe Richie is still on the ground.  
  
"There's a branch under my ass," Richie says, and Eddie starts to laugh so hard he can't breathe.  
  
"Fine, Eds, if this is so funny then you don't get to see where I was going to take you!" Richie feigns anger, but he's smiling, a laugh clear in his eyes that hasn't quite made it out yet.  
  
"Fine by me!" And then Richie's laughing, and Eddie thinks if they never make it to Richie's destination, that's okay, because he's with Richie.  
  
Who is possibly the worst person ever when he pulls Eddie down to the ground with him.


End file.
